Grandma’s Secret Weapons: Worms In Your Compost

For most people when their Grandma sends them a photo, it’s of lovely things like her homemade apple pie, a beautiful sunset, rainbows, or hummingbirds.

Here is what I was sent:

I loved it. We are a strange family.

Facts about composting with worms or vermicomposting

• There are specific types of worms you use for Vermicomposting. The most common are called “Red Wiggler” or “Red Worms”. You can purchase them at your local garden store. Regular earth worms will not work!
• The benefit of adding worms to your compost is that it speeds along the process and leaves you with a finer compost.
• Vermicomposting is ideal for small spaces! You could even have a worm bin in a small Rubbermaid plastic bin.

• On average one worm will turn over the equivalent of half its weight per day. Good to keep in mind when purchasing worms.

What conditions are needed in your worm bin

•  Moisture, do not let your worm bin dry out! You can either place a piece of cardboard over the top of your pile, or water it down if it dries out.
• Your standard composting rules apply, just remember no pet waste, dairy, meat, or oil.
•  Darkness: The worms like to be in the dark. Having the worms in a bin with a closed lid is preferable.
•  Air: Although they like darkness they still need oxygen, check out one of my Grandma’s ideas for this. You can also drill holes into your container.
• Do not stir you compost! After a few months your worms have completely organized your compost just the way they like it!
• Your worms may enjoy a bed of newspaper, coir, or dried leaves.

• If your bed gets too moist (more than what a wrung out sponge looks like) add some dry materials, or increase the air flow.

If you are looking to start a simple worm bin, here is a great resource:

http://www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/03.asp

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Grandma's Secret Weapons

Composting is great, we can all agree on that. But turning your compost and aerating it can be a pain. Especially if you are 86 years old!

Wait until you see this secret weapon.

My Grandma purchased some PVC pipe at the local hardware store and had my Uncle drill holes throughout it:

Next, they placed the pipe through the compost cage, so that it sticks out on each side. Air is able to come  through the ends and travel to different layers of the compost!

Why do you need to aerate your compost? Simply put, it speeds up the decomposition process. Tiny organisms (bacteria) live in your compost, and with a healthy supply of oxygen, will multiply and speed up the process of breaking down the matter in your bin!

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Lasagna Gardening

This is a technique to start a new garden bed that I've been dying to try. 

Lasagna Gardening is a concept developed by Patricia Lanza, that focuses on a no digging, no tilling method for creating a garden bed on grass, weeds, or poor soil. The idea is to block the weeds or grass, and then layer organic material on top. It's been said that this method will greatly increase the productivity of your garden!

Here is the recipe

1. Find where you want your new bed to go and try to level the area as much as you can.

2. Cover grass, weeds, or soil with wet newspaper or cardboard. This will kill whatever is underneath.

3. Water it down. 

4. Add about 2 inches of peat moss. Water this down as well. Try using the mist setting on your hose as peat moss tends to repel water if it has dried out.

5. Next, you want to add layers of organic material. Lanza suggests alternating between carbon rich material (brown), nitrogen rich material (green), and peat moss. 

• Carbon Rich: dead leaves, straw or hay, small twigs, wood chips
• Nitrogen Rich: Grass clippings, manure, leftover vegetables, egg shells, coffee grounds (you can get free coffee grounds for your garden at your local coffee shop)

6. Your garden box should be anywhere from 12-24 inches deep.

7. Finish with a layer of compost or mulch

8. If you can place a plastic tarp over your garden for a week to help heat up your layers, this will assist in the composting.

(picture from http://ucanr.org)

I used the "Spring method" which involved using mostly brown material for layering and not as many layers. It's possible to plant the same day with the above method. Being in a cooler climate means my Lasagna Garden will not break down as fast as I would like it to. 

Here's how I did it:

My shiny new garden box contained part old garden dirt and part grass. I covered the dirt and grass with newspaper (I used a thickness of two sheets, see below). You shouldn't stand in your garden bed, by they way, as it compacts the soil. So do as I say, not as I do!

I watered down the newspaper to help keep it in place (below).

I added 2 inches of peat moss and watered it down again.

I added compost from my bin, and more peat moss.  

I added top soil from the garden store. Next, I will add my transplants and mulch to keep the soil warm.

You can also do this in your containers as well to create nice, fluffy, nutrient-rich soil!

Is anyone else craving lasagna now?

Image from this fabulous recipe: http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/2006/08/17/my-mothers-lasagna/

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Preparing Your Soil

 I see sunshine in our future.  7 whole days in a row (I choose to ignore the rain drops). I've begun dreaming about all the things I'm going to do, I've got my sunglasses ready, and my flip flops waiting by the door. I can't wait to crawl out of my cave of gloomy darkness. 

While day dreaming, I had a moment of panic when I realized that on your list may be gardening. I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. 

I want to offer my number one tip for a successful garden this summer. If you listen to nothing else, I promise knowing the following information will lead to a successful garden.

It's all about the dirt, baby. 

Crappy soil, a professional umbrella term for; lacking nutrients, too acidic, poor drainage, clay like soil, or sandy soil. And living in Seattle, we all have crappy soil.

With the amount of rain we receive, Seattle is known for having soil that is high in potassium but low in everything else, as the rain washes the nutrients out. Unfortunately, just adding fresh compost does not do the trick since your compost is made up of matter from this region that came from soil that is high in potassium an low in other nutrients.

It's time to fertilize. And don't worry this method of fertilizing is green and healthy. Here is your mix:

.5 part kelp meal
.5 part lime
4 parts seed meal (cottonseed or canola seed)
.5 part phosphate

If you can't find all of the ingredients at your garden store, the two most important ones are seed meal and lime. Although I had no problem finding all four:

I purchase each item separately, as I have not been able to find fertilizer that has everything I mentioned above. Most of them include potassium as well, which our soil does not need more of. Potassium does produce large juicy vegetables and a high yield however it also dramatically decreases the overall nutritional value! If purchasing the above is overwhelming then here is what I recommend buying:

In addition, purchase some agricultural or gardening lime. Follow the directions on the back as to how much to add. 

Here is how I mix my parts and store it, I will be adding this fertilizer throughout the summer, so I make a large batch and store it in a plastic container:

                    

Once you have your mixture work it into the first few inches of your garden with a rake. If you have already planted then you can sprinkle around the plants base. However do not fertilize new seedlings until they are established.

The information above comes from a fantastic gardening book called "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" by Steve Solomon. It is my absolute favorite garden book, but only for the true garden nerds. 

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